Three Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 37

Lawrence caught the way she moved, a crease forming between his brows. He was only half-listening to the people around him, too distracted to care much about the conversation.

As he lifted his drink and took a slow sip, his eyes drifted to Bonnie. She picked at her food but hardly ate a thing. Seeing that, Lawrence couldn't help but sigh quietly to himself.

He reached out and spun the lazy Susan so the plate of braised beef brisket stopped right in front of her.

Bonnie had tried to take some earlier, but a coworker had turned the platter away before she could. Now, faced with it again, the dish just didn’t look as tempting as it had when it first hit the table.

She set her chopsticks down and leaned toward Jim, whispering an excuse before slipping out to the restroom. No one seemed to notice or care that she’d left.

Bonnie sat in the women’s room, pressing her hand to the spot just beneath her ribs where her stomach ached. If she pushed down hard, the pain dulled a little.

After she felt a bit better, she got up, washed her hands, and glanced at herself in the mirror. That’s when she saw him—his reflection right behind her.

Lawrence had left the top two buttons of his white shirt undone. His neck was flushed, and she watched his Adam’s apple move up and down, as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words.

He’d been drinking again. He always turned a little red when he drank. And when he did, he lost his mind around her.

Right now, though, they were nothing. Strangers, really.

Bonnie nodded at him, polite and distant, just like you’d act with a client.

She started to walk past him toward the door, but Lawrence stepped in front of her, blocking her way. He looked down and murmured, “I ordered a few things you like. Try to eat a little, or your stomach will hurt again.”

Those memories made him ache. She’d been so alive, so bright with him. Now, she was distant, colder than the first time he’d met her back at Cabinda University, the day she shot down a classmate’s love letter without even blinking.

Lawrence took a breath, fighting to keep his voice steady. “Does it really have to be like this? I thought… I mean, I hoped we could at least still be friends.”

Bonnie looked right at him—no warmth, just disbelief. It was ridiculous. The guy she’d broken up with so messily, who now had a wife and a kid, asking if they could be friends.

“Lawrence,” she said, her tone gentle but distant. “If there’s nothing else, just let me go.”

Lawrence hated how empty her voice sounded. He almost wished she’d yell at him, push him away, glare at him like she did that night by the subway. Even anger or hate would be better than this total indifference.

Without thinking, he tried to grab a cigarette, but his pocket was empty. Frustrated, Lawrence closed his eyes for a second before opening them. “What’s going on with your ear? You keep touching it… does it hurt?”